Roebling, N. J.

 

The village of Roebling in Florence Township, N. J. was founded in 1905 by the Roebling family as the site for their mill. Because housing was needed for workers, a planned community was developed. Charles Roebling built 750 red brick homes for employees, laid out 100-foot-wide streets, and picked London plane trees to shade the medians. The town that bears his family name looks much as it did then, although jobs that sustained the residents disappeared in 1974. The Main Gate Building housing the Roebling Museum explains how wire rope produced at the plant was used in products and construction including suspension bridges such as the George Washington Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.